Returning to Hokkyokusei, barely making it on time. I left my class's station to join my other teammates for the tug-of-war.
Different classes and grades are distributed into four groups: yellow, blue, red, and white teams.
Wearing our red headband, Class 1-A, my class is assigned to the red team, competing in the tag of war against the white team to see who will advance to the finals.
With the referee's signal, both sides started to pull with everything they had. With a moment's struggle, our red team manages to pull through, overpowering the white team, passing the center line.
I thought to myself after our victory, *Looks like I didn't have much in this round* seeing my allies be all so strong and dependable.
It didn't take long before the other teams finished. It's a pretty straight forward game and we're already at the finals.
After gathering the participants. "One, two, three. Pull!"
With the sound of the whistle, everybody pulled as hard as they could, but I found my side slowly getting pulled back closer and closer to the center line. It's because,
" PULL! PULL! PULL! PULL!!!"
The enemy team began our match, moving in unison like a continuous pulse ever so beating.
*That's no good* I thought to myself, firmly holding rope at the back of our team.
Being reminded of what's at stake for this match, *I guess it's time to use a fraction of my power.*
You see, I purposely placed myself at the end of the group to act as the anchor if all things fail and we couldn't get our momentum. Wrapping the rope across my body making the distributing of force not just to my arm. With the core strength I built over the years, I held the back line with my life on the line. Never slacking, always tight, unwavering to their rhythm.
*If I could just hold them off like this...* Struggling, the moment I felt the other team was slacking, I yelled "NOW!!!" A short sharp call that engaged everyone from my side for a big lean back, enough to shift the momentum to us for a fraction of second, a second enough to gain the momentum to carry us to victory.
"We did it!" The whole red team cheered as we claims victorious as the blue team lost their stamina towards the end.
After getting a breather, "Phew. We barely manage to win that one." I mumbled.
Hitomi-san came to me with a towel, "Good job out there"
"G-Good job!" Mocha-san gave a thumbs up, wanting to contribute to the conversation.
"Hehe" I smiled widely, giving a proud peace sign as our team claim victorious.
Wiping my sweat with the towel, *Now that the tug-of-war is over, next up should be the relay.* But before that, we stopped by Aria-san's match, a the tennis competition preliminaries.
Getting there in time before Aria-san's match finishes, Aria-san barely won against her opponent, only winning by two points.
"Great job out there" I complimented, offering a fist bump to her as acknowledgement of her victory.
Returning the fist bump, "Hmph. I would have won without the empty flattery."
Hearing the speakers call for the participants on the relay, Aria-san then turned her gaze to us. As if encouraging us, "Now it's your tern to win one for the team."
"Yeah," I nodded, promising to do our best to win the relay.
...
[At the race track.]
Doing our stretches, we reflect on our strategy we formed yesterday. Just as we discussed, Haru-san would be up first, followed my Mocha-san, then me, and Satoru-kun will serve as our anchor.
Satoru-kun lead the cheer inn our huddle, "Alright! Let's do this!"
"YES!" our team replied, hyping each other up.
After doing our cheers, Haru-san went to the starting line with the other first runners.
Crouching on four points, a girl on Haru-san's side spoke to her. "Let's give it our all. Haru."
Her name is named Mashiro Suzumiya, a second year senpai from the same track and field team as Haru-san, greeting her in the name of sportsmanship.
"Yes, senpai!" Haru-san responded, accepting her senpai's challenge.
With the sound of the starting pistol, Haru-san locked in and sprinted with all of her might. The reason Haru-san went first was to gain the tone for Mocha-san who was less experienced. As expected, the two girls who were part of the track team created a huge lead, Haru-san just trailing a bit behind her senpai.
The game plan was simple, to give Satoru-kun a three seconds head start against his senpai, Itsuki Suzuki, his girlfriend's ex.
Even Satoru-kun said it himself, "I hate to admit it, but Suzuki-senpai is much faster than me"
"Just three second," he requested. "It might not look like much, but three seconds is a lot when it comes to a race."
Haru-san nodded in agreement, running in the same track team as Satoru-kun.
Mocha-san position herself on the line, waiting for the pass of baton. Halfway on the track, Haru-san grit her teeth, preparing for decisive stretch, overtaking Mashiro-senpai by the time they passed the corner.
Reaching out her hand, Mocha-san was the first person to grab their teammate's baton. A few seconds after, Suzumiya-senpai caught up to pass to her teammate.
"You're really fast. Haru." Suzumiya-senpai complimented, as if accepting her defeat.
As Suzumiya catch her breath, "I'm really disappointed in you. Suzumiya-senpai." an unfamiliar tone came out of Haru-san's mouth, as if looking down at garbage with such sharp and cold gaze.
"Eh?" looking clueless, Suzumiya-senpai can't help but wonder *why?*
Not knowing what Suzumiya-senpai did wrong,
Mashiro Suzumiya-san, second year, girl's track and field captain. Status: She's Itsuki Suzuki-kun's new girlfriend. Or more accurate to say, the girl Itsuki Suzuki-kun cheated with while in a relationship with Aoi Sakagami-san, Satoru-kun's current girlfriend.
Haru-san, being Satoru-kun's childhood friend, wanted to get revenge on Suzumiya-senpai, as Suzumiya-senpai was Satoru-kun's inspiration as to why he joined the track team.
*Not only did you hurt my friend, you've also gotten slower.* Is what Haru-san thought, noticing how pathetic her senpai become.
Running in full speed, it's now Mocha-san's turn to carry the baton.
Barely holding on to the lead, Mocha-san sprinted with all she's got, thinking, *We might actually win this.*
~~~~~~~~~~
Note: To summarize the love pentagon cause author is too lazy to show everything. Suzumiya-senpai lead Satoru on while Haru got cockblocked with Suzumiya's presence. Satoru find Sakagami crying near the track after finding out Suzuki cheated. Finding themselves in their most vulnerable state, Satoru suggested the both of them start dating. That explains Haru's disappointment to her captain as not only di she hurt her childhood friend, she also realized Suzumiya's not taking track seriously anymore.